Why Do So Few Docs Have Buprenorphine Waivers?

February 21, 2018

“The barriers to obtaining a buprenorphine (Suboxone) waiver in the U.S. are small, but loom large in many physicians’ minds.

Only 46,500 — about 5% of the nation’s doctors — have waivers to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid addiction. While that number has grown in recent years, it includes psychiatrists and addiction specialists, many of whom don’t practice in rural areas.

But even including those specialties, it’s not enough. “The current number of waivered physicians is not sufficient to ensure access to buprenorphine treatment for all individuals with opioid use disorder, even if every physician were prescribing at the maximum of their waivers,” said Hannah Knudsen, PhD, of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington. Knudsen has studied the relationship between the supply of buprenorphine-waivered physicians and prescription opioid mortality.”